Why bingeing on box sets could save your marriage

IT may lack the romance of a candlelit dinner but a night in watching a box set with your other half could be just as good for your relationship.

Research shows the more box sets and films a couple see together, the happier and more committed they are.

Reading the same books may also improve the relationship, according to the Aberdeen University study.

In other words, far from being a waste of time, watching Mad Men or discussing the romances of the surgeons in Grey’s Anatomy, could be good for your marriage. Researcher Sarah Gomillion quizzed more than 250 men and women in long-term relationships, asking them how close they felt to their partner, how committed they were and how important the relationship was to their lives.

Then they were asked about ‘shared media use’ such as TV, films and reading.

The results revealed that evenings spent together in such a way fostered closeness. Dr Gomillion said that while critics see hours spent in front of the screen as wasted time, humans have a fundamental need to share social experiences.

She added: ‘Humans have created shared social experiences through narrative and performance long before the advent of modern media.

‘Our findings support growing evidence that, like other forms of narrative, contemporary media benefits people by providing a rich, psychologically meaningful social world.’

A second experiment showed that people became more interested in watching TV with their partner when made to dwell on the fact they had few mutual friends. However, this was only the case if they liked watching television, the Journal of Society and Personal Relationships reports.

Dr Gomillion said that ‘when people lack a shared circle of friends with their partners, sharing media like TV shows, books and movies with partners may compensate for this deficit and restore closeness’.

However, bingeing on box sets is not always good for your health. A recent Japanese study found that adults who spent at least five hours a day in front of the TV were twoand-a-half times more likely to die from a blood clot in the lungs.